For prize-winning geographer James Shortridge, Kansas City is more than the sum of cultural icons like barbecue, jazz, and sports teams. In his new book he explores more than a century of change and how Kansas City came to look and function the way it does.

He explores suburbanization, changing modes of transportation and personalities such as Tom Pendergast, J.C. Nichols, and Kay Waldo Barnes, whose policies shaped the metropolitan area.

Shortridge is professor of geography at the University of Kansas.